


Of Electroshocks, Guilt, and Harper Hayes

by SabbyStarlight



Series: George Eads Appreciation Week 2020! [3]
Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Electrocution, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Torture, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-26
Updated: 2020-02-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:02:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22909819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SabbyStarlight/pseuds/SabbyStarlight
Summary: Day Three of George Eads Appreciation Week!  Favorite Ship.Jack goes another round with his least favorite villain, only this time she takes Mac too.
Series: George Eads Appreciation Week 2020! [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1645582
Comments: 29
Kudos: 62





	Of Electroshocks, Guilt, and Harper Hayes

**Author's Note:**

> Ship is short for relationship... And nobody said anything about it having to be a GOOD relationship, right? So my mind instantly went to Harper and Jack for this one. If you haven't yet, I would highly suggest reading the last chapter of my Whumptober series before continuing past this point, the rest of this isn't gonna make much sense if you don't.

There’s a crick in Jack’s neck when he wakes up. A dull, throbbing, pulse of pain that isn’t quite the all-to-familiar pain of sleeping in a chair. Those were usually hospital room chairs, in his experience. Not the cold metal screwed into concrete floor he found himself staring down at. He usually always had on his shoes and a shirt too, though, and those items were gone this time. The combination of all those problems had him looking up, squinting through the headache in the dim fluorescent lighting flickering above him.

He was instantly forced more alert though when he saw his partner sitting across from him, in the same position. Stripped down to nothing but his khakis, head lolling against his chest, blonde hair falling over closed eyes making him look way too young to find himself in such a precarious position. “Mac,” He called out softly, ignoring the ache in the back of his throat as he tried to wake the younger man up. “Mac, c’mon buddy, wake up. We got a bit of a situation here.”

Jack’s arms were restrained, fastened to the seat with heavy metal shackles he didn’t stand a chance of breaking out of and when he tried to reach out with his foot, to nudge Mac awake since his voice wasn’t bringing him around as quickly as he would have liked, he found the same cuffs wrapped around his ankles, securing him to the legs of the chair. “Mac,” He tried again. “I need that brain of yours right about now.”

There must have been a level of panic slipping through his voice with the second plea, because Mac started to stir, slowly lifting his head and wincing, still half asleep, at apparently the same pain in his neck Jack was feeling. “Jack?” He blinked slowly, letting out a frustrated groan as he tried to reach a hand to brush his hair out of his eyes only to find his hands secured at his sides. “Wh’re we?”

“No clue,” Jack admitted, waiting until Mac’s blue eyes started scanning the room they were in, searching for any trace of a clue or an explanation before he really focused, searching the younger man’s exposed skin for any sign of injury. “You alright?”

“Yeah,” Mac frowned, his search of the room apparently coming up empty. It was dark except for the small illuminated area directly beneath the light they were positioned under. “Think so. Neck’s sore, kinda fuzzy. I’m guessing a tranq? That’s how they got us here?”

“As good a guess as any,” Jack shrugged. “Any ideas on how to answer the W’s?”

“The W’s?” Mac asked, confused.

“You know,” Jack forced a nonchalant smile. “The W’s. Who, what, when, where, why?”

“I…” Mac paused, trying to force himself to remember. “No, actually. I don’t remember anything.”

“Maybe I can help answer some of those for you.” A third voice spoke from out of the shadows and both men jumped, having wrongfully assumed they were alone in the room. The familiar tromp of tac boots echoed as they came closer but Jack didn’t need to see her face to recognize the voice. “Hi boys,” Harper Hayes came into view, lips curled into a devious smirk. “It’s been a while.”

“Not long enough, darlin’,” Jack rolled his eyes, drawing the attention to himself and away from Mac who was still staring at her in shock.

“Aww,” Her smile grew as Jack’s plan worked. She stepped over to him, pushing his legs apart to stand between them, entirely ignoring Mac, and traced her nails down the side of his face. Jack barely managed to hold back a shudder at her touch. “Haven’t you missed me, Jack? I’ve missed you.”

“No, you know what? Can’t say that I have.”

“What do you want?” Mac’s found his voice and Jack winced as Harper turned towards the sound, silently begging him to stay quiet. That was their gig. Jack took the hits and Mac worked up a plan to get them free. But the plan wouldn’t work if Harper set her sights on Mac.

“What I want,” She crossed her arms, thankfully keeping her hands away from Mac as she spoke. “Is your cowboy over there. I’ve heard through the grapevine that the two of you are a package deal. You’re pretty much legendary, the two of you? MacGyver and Dalton. And every girl loves a good bargain. What’s better than a two for one special?

Jack tried to draw her attention back to himself by answering the question he knew she had meant to be rhetorical. It was him she truly wanted, after all. She even admitted as much. "Off the top of my head? Better than a good deal? I don't know, how about findin' the keys to these here cuffs and letting us go? That sounds like a pretty sweet bargain to me."

"You can't leave yet, Jack," Her smirk was devious enough to leave him anxious. "We have a little game to play."

"Not too much into games," He drew a comically exaggerated frown. "Gotta be really in the mood if you know what I mean. And your little trick with the sedative went and knocked that mood right outta me."

"You mean that sting in your neck?" Her eyes lit up at the mention and her hands were back on him, tilting his head back, nails trailing around the source of the soreness. "Oh, honey, that wasn't a sedative. Well, I mean, those were involved too, don't get me wrong. A couple of big, strong men like you? I couldn't get you here without a little help. But that's not what you're feeling. That's something way more exciting."

"Wanna let me in on the secret then?" Jack risked a glance over her shoulder at Mac, who was struggling to find a way out of his restraints while Jack held their captor's attention. Sensing his partner's eyes on him, Mac looked up and shook his head, blue eyes shining bright with an unspoken apology. He didn't see a way out of them either. "Level the playing field? Only seems fair."

"You'll find out soon enough," She promised, leaning close to whisper the words against his ear. He wasn't able to hold back his shudder that time. "You ready to get started?"

"You know," Mac's voice interrupted their moment, sensing Jack's unease. "I don't remember much about how you got us here? But I'm pretty sure we were on our way to work. That sound right, Jack?"

"Yeah," Jack agreed automatically, picking up on Mac's play even though he had no clue if it was a true statement or not. "Yeah on our way in."

"Which means you picked a really stupid time to take us," Mac continued. "I figured you were smarter than that since you know who we work for now. We can't have been here long, but even if it's only been an hour or two people will have noticed we were missing. And I don't care how important the job we were called in for was, they will drop everything and start looking. It's only a matter of time they find us. And you. Missing prison already? You haven't even made it two years on the run." Mac shook his head as if he was disappointed by the number. "I really thought you were better than that. We all thought you were gonna be a worthy adversary for my man Jack over there, but no, you're just gonna get your thrills and end up back in some hole."

Jack sent him a warning glare, the taunting had gone too far and was beginning to border on dangerous.

"I'm smarter than you're giving me credit for," Harper assured, seemingly unphased by Mac's teasing. "But you're right about one thing. The rest of your little team has to be searching for you by now. But maybe you are the one who isn't as smart as everyone thinks, MacGyver. I bet it never even crossed your pretty little mind that I was expecting them to do just that."

"Do you remember, Jack," She turned back to him. "What I told you the last time we had a little fun?"

"That... you were batshit crazy?" Jack guessed and Mac covered a startled laugh with a cough.

"No, that I was going to kill you one day. I just wanted to make sure we got to finish our game first."

"Nope," Jack popped his lips at the end of the word and tilted his head to the side as if he was struggling to remember. "Don't ring a bell, darlin'. But it doesn’t sound like something I would agree to and games are more fun if they're between two consenting individuals." He waggled his eyebrows at the suggestion.

"Two, yes," Harper traced her hands back around the puncture wound on Jack's neck. "Consenting? Not so much. But the really fun part about this game, Jack? Is it's not between me and you. Not this stage of it. No, this time's all up to you and your boy over there. I'm gonna take off as soon as things get started. Like Mac said, the rest of your little crew is going to be searching for you, I can't risk being here when they find you. If I get caught now we won't get to keep playing."

"Do we at least get to know what we're playing here?" Mac asked, annoyed at her fill-in-the-blanks style of explanation.

"Of course," She turned around, trailing her fingers across Jack's bare shoulders as she went, just out of sight for a moment and returned with a strand of electrical cord. She ran it over to the nearest wall, Jack could barely make out the faint pattern of stacked cinderblocks, and plugged it into the outlet there and then weaved the cord around the legs of his chair so there was no slack. No chance of improvising a weapon or of pulling it free from the power source. She really had put a lot of thought into her plan this time. There was a small silver box, a control panel of some sort, at the end of the cord and she placed it under Jack's right hand.

"And just what am I supposed to do with this?" Jack asked, staring down at the little metal box, unimpressed.

"Turn it on," Harper suggested with a shrug of her shoulders, feigning nonchalance but there was a glimmer of excitement in her eyes that she couldn't mask and it left Jack with an impending sense of danger. "Find out."

He flicked his eyes over to Mac's, knowing that the younger man had spent the entirety of his conversation with the madwoman examining her unique torture set-up, trying to figure out what to expect when the switch turned on. He shook his head, just barely, when Jack's eyes met his, admitting that he had no clue what was coming.

"Turn it on," Harper said again, less of a suggestion this time. "Or I'll do it for you."

"Alright, alright," Jack took a breath, not knowing what to expect but knowing it wouldn't be pleasant, whatever it was, and met Mac's eyes as he flipped the switch. For the briefest of seconds nothing happened and then it hit. A jolt shot through him, falling somewhere between the sting of an electric fence and the mind-numbing burn of a cattle prod. It buzzed through him for a moment before falling still again. The reprieve lasted just long enough for him to catch his breath before starting back again, stronger this time, and the break between when it and the next shock began was shorter. Eventually, his body began to adjust, just enough for him to hear Mac's voice calling out to him through the pain. It took another two cycles of shocking pain and the smallest imaginable pauses for him to understand what Mac was saying and make sense of the words "Turn it off!"

His fingers fumbled, stiff, muscles and joints already seizing up from tension, but eventually managed to flip the switch and the pain eased. The relief was short-lived, though, because as soon as the shocks stopped wracking through his body, they started up in Mac's.

Neither of them had expected that unpleasant surprise, judging by the pained yelp Mac let escape as the first shock ran through him. "The hell is this?" Jack fumed, anger burning through his own discomfort as he glared at Harper, wanting nothing more than to be able to rip the smug smile off her face. "Turn it off him. Now."

"Go for it," She shrugged. "You're the one in control here, handsome. Turn it back on you and boy wonder over there stops hurting."

"Don't..." Mac panted, determination burned in his eyes as he forced his head up to look at Jack. "I'm okay."

"This is so far from okay," Jack mumbled, taking a breath, preparing himself now that he knew what to expect, and sending Harper a defiant glare before turning the shocks back on himself.

"What are they," He heard Mac ask, voice dull, muffled by the buzzing in his ears as he closed his eyes and tried to ride out the pain. "Some kind of transmitters? That's what's in our necks, isn't it? Creative, I'll give you that. But I don't see how this is gonna work out in your favor. Our team's still going to find us and that won't end well for you."

"Fancy upgraded wireless transmitters," She confirmed, tracing the circle of bruising around the implant site on Jack's neck, relishing the feel of the corded muscles beneath her touch. "Rigged on a loop with a variety of electroshock strengths and a random pause between each one. I thought that would be the most fun, never really being able to expect just what's coming up next. Not knowing how bad it's gonna hurt or how long of a break you're going to get before the next one starts. Jack's panel gives him complete control, it's entirely up to him how this plays out. Does he take it all on himself? Prove how strong he is and risk blowing that big heart of his up before help arrives? Or will he share the fun? Let you take your fair share of the hurt, knowing that it's coming from him. He has to be the one to turn it on you. And sure, if you take turns with it? There's a pretty good chance you'll both survive. But can he live with himself, with the guilt of your pain coming from his own hands?"

Her smile grew sad, wistful. "I wish I could stick around to watch. It's gonna be one hell of a show. But, I can't risk being here when the rest of team Phoenix finds you, can I Jack?" She turned back to him, his face red, teeth clenched as he tried to bite back a scream as each shock ran through him. "I hope you survive this, Dalton, I really do. I'm not done playing with you just yet..."

Mac watched as she walked away, not even bothering to take in a final look over her shoulder as she went. He heard the echo of a door slamming closed behind her, heavy, metal, somewhere on the far end of the room, tucked away in the shadows he couldn't see through. "Jack?" He called once he was sure they were alone again. "Hey, Jack. Switch it back to me for a while, give yourself a break."

Jack shook his head, blinking tears or sweat, Mac wasn't sure which, maybe both, out of his eyes as he fought to look at Mac. "I'm... good," He panted. "Can go on... all day.." The words would have been a lot more encouraging if they hadn't trailed off into a barely-contained yell as the latest shock jolted through him, stronger than any had been so far.

"Jack!" Mac struggled against the cuffs on his wrists again, the cold metal tearing at his skin, leaving bruises, but he didn't care. "Stop it. You can't keep this up. I can take it. Switch it back."

There was a longer pause this time, enough for Jack to suck in a few much-needed breaths. "Don't wanna hurt you," He whispered, voice hoarse and gravelly before the shocks started up again and he let out a scream, more from frustration at their situation than actual pain. "This... is my mess. She wants to get... to me. Shouldn't have dragged..." Another jolt and Mac winced as he watched every muscle in his partner's body tense against the strain. "You into it."

"Hey," Mac called, trying his best to keep his voice from warbling, fighting back frustrated tears of his own, switching tactics. "Hey, big guy, you hear me?"

Jack nodded, eyes tightly squeezed closed against the pain.

"Okay, hey," Mac continued. "Hey, just, listen to me, alright? Focus on my voice. You with me?" He waited on Jack to nod again before continuing. "I know you think this is your responsibility, or whatever. Your burden to bear. But she came after both of us, right? I'm here, same as you. So you gotta let me take a turn for a while. They're coming for us, I know they are, we're getting out of here. But she was right, as much as I hate to admit it. It could be a while still and you can't hold out forever, man."

"I'm not..." Jack let out a growl as his muscles contracted again. "Hurting you."

"You're right," Mac agreed easily. "You aren't hurting me. Harper Hayes is. None of this is on you, so pass it on over. Give yourself a break."

Mac could see that his logical argument was working. Jack knew, as much as he hated to admit it, that he couldn't keep going for very long without a break. If rescue didn't come crashing through the doors soon he was done for. But the thought of flipping that switch and sending the pain he was currently enduring over to Mac, to the kid he had sworn he would spend his life protecting, felt a million kinds of wrong.

As he usually could, Mac knew exactly what his partner was thinking. "If you let this kill you, Jack? Just out of sheer stubbornness, I'll never forgive you for it. And besides, I know she said she was leaving, but who's to say she doesn't have a video feed set up in here? She could be watching this whole thing, apparently, she's decided to one-up herself in the technology department, and is just waiting for you to pass out, or worse. And how are you going to keep me safe then?"

"You're... sure?"

Mac nodded, forcing a smile and making sure to hide any trace of nerves from his eyes. "What?" He teased. "You don't think I can handle it?"

"Just..." Jack struggled to take in enough air to keep talking in the breaks between shocks. "For a minute. Lemme catch... my breath... and you're done."

"Take as long as you need, I'll be fine," Mac promised. "C'mon, man, you're at the end of your rope and we both know it. Let me take the wheel for a while."

And though it went against every instinct he had, Jack agreed. Forcing clumsy, uncooperative fingers to press the switch beneath his sweaty palm until it clicked and the pain ended.

Mac knew what to expect this time at least. One could never really prepare for electrocution, especially the way Harper had set her torture system up to shock at random strengths and intervals to keep them from falling into the comfort of a pattern, but he was able to keep quiet, though it was more for Jack's sake than his own dignity.

"I'm sorry," Jack whispered up at the ceiling, not bothering to hide the tears he couldn't hold back as he sank into his chair, muscles shaking, tensing on their own, unsure how to react at the sudden reprieve. "I'm so sorry."

"It's fine," Mac hissed out through gritted teeth. He couldn’t hear Jack’s voice but he still knew exactly what he was saying. "Not you doing it."

"Pretty sure I remember flipping that damn switch, brother," Jack looked down at it, shining and innocent beneath his trembling hand, seemingly incapable of causing the excruciating pain he had just passed on to his partner. "I can turn it back."

"Don't... You dare." Mac wasn't miserable enough yet to hide the heat behind his words. "Rest. Take a... break," His face scrunched up in pain as another shock zapped through him, causing Jack to wince in sympathy. "Damn, that was a bad one," He huffed in the break after it had passed.

"Alright, alright breathe through it," Jack coached, putting his own discomfort to the back burner and shifting his focus to helping Mac. Once the worst of the pain had cleared he understood Mac's logic of taking turns. Hell, he wouldn't forgive himself if he let that crazy woman kill him, no way he could expect Mac to forgive him for it, but it didn't mean he had to like it, not one bit. "You gotta keep breathin', bud. Don't hold your breath, as bad as you're gonna want to. That's just askin' for you to pass out on me."

"'Least then..." Mac forced a grin, a pale imitation of his usual lopsided smirk. "I wouldn't... feel it."

"You can tap out any time, Mac. I'm good, just say the word. I needed a break for a minute and you let me have one. Ready for me to take it back over?"

Mac shook his head, stopping as the movement pulled on the sore spot where the transponder had been implanted. "I'm good. Still my turn."

Jack clenched his hands into fists in frustration. Watching his partner hurt was never a fun experience but he had developed several sure-fire ways of helping him through it over the years. It helped him just as much as it helped Mac, though. Gave him a purpose, something to do, an excuse to keep his hands and his mouth busy until the pain stopped. Unfortunately, for both of them, all of his tricks required some form of personal contact and Harper had planned accordingly, making sure he couldn't even reach out a foot to touch Mac's shaking form, let alone a comforting hand. And his voice was too unsteady to be reassuring. He closed his eyes, forcing himself to follow his own advice and keep breathing, stockpiling precious oxygen for when he couldn't stand letting Mac suffer any longer and wishing the younger man wasn't hurting so badly that he wouldn't have the strength to lecture Jack on that not being how lungs worked if he had voiced his plan out loud.

He decided to give himself to the count of one hundred before passing the baton back to himself but an apparent excessively strong jolt left Mac whimpering from the pain and that was the final straw. "Okay, kiddo," He took a breath, mentally preparing himself. "Enough of that. Back to me." And the sound of the switch flicking on was drowned out by the faint buzzing in his ears as the current burned through his veins once more.

"I could've held out longer," Mac protested once he had taken a moment to regain some of his composure, breathing heavily. "Don't even think you let me go for ten minutes."

"I'm good," Jack wheezed out, "This is my battle anyway, 'member?"

"I remember my partner is too stubborn for his own good," Mac rolled his eyes and instantly regretted it, the movement triggered a wave of nausea that he had to swallow down. "I could've kept going."

"Naw," Jack shook his head, protesting. "I'm good... for a while. Just cross... your fingers that help comes... before we have to... trade off again."

"You can't keep this up, Jack," Mac argued again, mostly to himself, knowing Jack wouldn't agree with him. "The long-term risks to your heart alone,"

"You know what's... a danger to my heart?" Jack cut him off. "Losing you. I ain't... putting you in... danger... any more'n I have to."

Mac bit his lip and forced himself not to react, knowing that the last thing Jack needed was him being upset. For the millionth time since waking up in the barren room, Mac found himself searching for a way out. The cuffs were inescapable without the keys, even if he popped his thumbs out of socket, which, while it wasn't an ideal plan, it wouldn't be the first time and he would be more than willing to do it if he thought it would help. He knew there was a door but it was so far away and the room was so dark he couldn't even see it and the chairs were bolted into the cement floor, meaning they wouldn't budge either. They were well and truly stuck, waiting on rescue. He couldn't even reach the cord to unplug the transmitter system from the wall. Harper Hayes, Mac decided, was maybe the first opponent they had gone up against worthy of becoming Jack's nemesis.

"Hey, Jack," Mac was growing concerned, Jack's face was more purple than red now, tears flowing freely, pale lips splattered with blood from biting down so hard on the inside of his cheeks as he rode out the pain. "Turn it back to me for a little while, you're not looking too good right now, buddy."

Maybe it was the tone of Mac's voice, worried and gentle, a far cry from the anger he was spewing earlier at Jack's stubbornness, that got through to him, or maybe Jack was simply hurting bad enough that he didn't have it left in him to put up a fight, but he agreed. Flipping the switch over to the side labeled stop, he didn't even have the air to apologize to Mac before he did it.

"We can't keep this up much longer," Jack said, a few moments after he had regained enough strength to speak as he watched Mac tough his way through another series of brutal shocks. He had thought that if he closed his eyes it wouldn't be as bad, not having to watch Mac hurt, but hearing it was even worse because his mind supplied the images to go along with the sounds and they were usually worse than the real thing. "It's gotta have been over an hour, right? At least? That we’ve been doing this? And she couldn't have taken us far. They have to be close now, to finding us. Getting us the hell out of here."

"They're... coming," Mac agreed, panting through a particularly rough jolt.

Jack kept talking, it was the only thing he could do, trying to track his pulse as best he could, begging it to hurry up drop back down to a less dangerous level so he could go back to hurting instead of putting Mac through it. "Who you think's gonna be the first one through the door over there?" He asked, hoping the idea of imminent rescue would provide a slight distraction. He had given up hope on anything being comforting. "Think Bozer's gonna be coming for you? Or Riley?"

"Don't care," Mac pulled in air between zaps, "Long as it's soon."

“Okay,” Jack decided. “I can’t take this any more. Watchin’ you hurt like that is wors’n goin’ through it myself.”

“Jack, I’m… fine,” Mac argued but it was too late, Jack had already changed the current’s route back to himself.

Mac slumped in his chair, drained from his last round, as Jack fought to stay angry about their entire situation this time, hoping that maybe that would keep him going longer. He zoned out, focused on a spot of the darkness just past Mac’s shoulder, keeping the younger man in his peripheral vision, and huffed breaths through bared teeth, growling at each power surge, screaming through the really bad ones. Eventually, as Mac had been afraid it would, it became too much and he watched, helpless, as Jack’s eyes rolled back in his head.

“Jack!” He screamed, ignoring the burn in the back of his throat. Jack’s body relaxed, restraints the only things keeping him sitting upright, only to be shocked back into rigid tension with each new jolt. “Come on, Jack, you can’t do this,” Mac begged, staring longingly at the control panel beneath Jack’s spasming hand, wishing for a few seconds of consciousness, just enough for Jack to switch the transmitters over to him. “Wake up, Jack. Please?”

He half thought the rectangle of daylight cutting into the darkness at the edge of his vision was a trick of the fluorescent lighting, flickering through his tears. He was too focused on his unconscious partner to notice the shadow moving closer or the sound of familiar steps until he heard Desi’s voice. “The hell? Weren’t sure what we were going to find but this sure wasn’t it.”

“Desi,” The relief in his voice was palpable as she dropped to a knee beside him. “No, no, don’t worry about me I’m fine,” He pointed a shaking finger at the cord woven around the legs of Jack’s chair. “Help him. Unplug it, hurry.”

She nodded, already moving to do what he asked without question. “He’s alive,” She assured, pressing two fingers to the side of Jack’s neck, frowning at the deep purple bruising on the other side of it. “But clearly not doing too great. What is this thing?” She pried the metal switch box out from under his hand.

“Electrocution. Torture. Harper Hayes.” Mac explained. “He passed out a few minutes ago. We’ve been here a couple of hours now.”

“Damn,” she whistled. “No wonder you look so rough.”

“I’m fine,” Mac said again, brushing off her concern. “Need you to find the keys to these cuffs, get us outta here.”

“Calm down,” She put a resisting hand on his shoulder, frowning at the faint tremors she felt coursing through him. “The last thing I need is both of you passing out on me. I’ve got the keys right here.” She pulled a little ring of silver keys out of the pocket of her jeans. “They were waiting in the door when I found this place.”

“Course they were,” Mac spat as he waited impatiently for Desi to unlock all four cuffs. Once he was free he let her help him, unsteadily to his feet. "Help him," He said again, limping over to kneel at Jack's side. "We've gotta get him out of here."

Jack began to stir when he felt Desi's hands opening the cuffs one by one. "M'c?" His voice was slurred, bleary eyes unfocused, blinking through Mac unseeing until they were able to focus, but he was awake and Mac was going to count it as a win.

"Hey, buddy," He smiled a teary grin, wrapping Jack's free hand up in both of his own. "Hey, I'm right here. Desi's gettin' us out, alright? We're gonna be fine."

“Desi?”

“Yeah, she’s gonna get you some help, okay?”

“You too,” Jack insisted, giving Mac’s fingers a weak squeeze.

"I've got a car parked right outside," She said once the last cuff was unlocked. "You think you can make it that far, Jack? Not sure MacGyver here is up to helping me carry you out."

"Course I can walk," Jack decided, rubbing a tired hand over his face before moving to stand up unassisted. He would have fallen right back into the chair if it hadn't been for Desi's fast grip and Mac's conveniently placed shoulder to balance him. "Maybe just don't go too far," He admitted with a wince.

"We're right beside you," She promised, slinging one of Jack's arms over her shoulders as Mac fell into place on his other side. He wasn't much help, unable to take any of Jack's weight, walking in itself was a challenge at the moment, though Mac wouldn't admit it, but he was sticking close.

"You sure she isn't gonna... be waiting out in the hallway for us?" Jack asked, still talking despite how short of breath the torture session had left him. "Can't believe she gave up that easy."

"That looked anything but easy," Desi argued, shaking her head. "But there was no sign of her when I got here. Just the keys hanging out of the doorknob." She nodded towards it as they passed through the open doorway.

Mac was the closest to it, and Desi's attention was focused on keeping Jack from faceplanting as they crossed the threshold and into the brightly lit hallway so she didn't see the faint shadow of letters scratched into the dark paint on the back of the metal door.

"Umm," he paused, closing the door behind them to get a better look. "Little ominous, don't ya think, Des? What, you just assumed this whole ordeal was creepy enough we didn't need to know about this?"

"What are you..." She turned around, resting a hand on Jack's chest to keep him steady when the motion left him dizzy. "Mac. That wasn't there when I got here."

The three of them stood in silence for a moment, staring at the scrawled message.

_Even better show than I thought it was going to be. See you soon, Jack._

Desi carefully ducked from underneath Jack's arm, letting Mac step in to keep him upright even though he wasn't in much better shape than his partner, as she pulled a gun from the holster at her side.

"You're sure it wasn't here?" Mac asked, examining the letters closer, trying to ignore the chill creeping across the back of his neck. "You didn't just miss it?"

"The keys were right there," She continued scanning the hallway, searching for a threat. "In that door, Mac. I didn't miss it."

"She was here," Jack shook his head. "This whole damn time she was here, watching us. Crazy bitch."

"And she decided to leave you this little love note while I was getting you two uncuffed," Desi agreed, releasing the safety on her gun. "Which means she's probably still around."

"Where's the car?" Mac asked, struggling to keep both him and Jack standing. "We're getting out of here. Now. No more games."

Desi nodded her head in the direction of the door and they moved, slowly, down the hall and into the midday sun as they opened the door, each of them taking in a deep breath of fresh air. Mac found a new energy reserve when he saw Desi's car just a few yards away.

"Get him to the car," She instructed. "I've got a clear line of sight from here to there. I'll be right behind you but I'm calling this in. She can't have gone far and we need a team out here to find her."

Mac nodded, trekking the slow journey to the safety and comfort of Desi's sedan, breathing a heavy sigh of relief when he and Jack were both sprawled out across the backseat, leaning heavily on each other, exhausted and hurting, but alive.

Desi finished her call and put her phone away, making one final sweep of her surroundings with her gun drawn before jogging over to the car. Her priority was getting her boys the medical attention they needed, nothing else mattered. It would be someone else's job to deal with the source of the gleeful laughter that followed her out of the supposedly empty building.

**Author's Note:**

> Super huge thank you to Kailene for talking this out with me when I got stuck!


End file.
